atter all want to sever their connection with the
state or empire to which they just belong.

The Tcheques in Austria and the Finns in Russia
strive for their full autonomy within these
empires, but they have very little shown of a
desire to become a separate state. An opinion that
wars for abstruse benefits never asked for can
under no circumstances be regarded as liberation
wars would wrong nobody because it would apply to
all, but it may contribute much to have designs
given up which otherwise would uselessly cause
bloodshed and prolonged enmities.

The conference would also be justified in taking
measures to procure an impartial expert opinion on
the origin and the legal conduct of the war and
the general principles of national and
international right involved.

If the conference would invite neutral experts in
international law of general renown to investigate
the questions indicated above and draw up reports
it would not by this offend in the smallest degree
against the requirements of impartiality. But the
reports could, if based on careful examination and
considerately worded, contribute very much to
soften the excited minds in the countries engaged
and facilitate the preliminaries of a genuine
peace.

There are, no doubt, all sorts of objections that
could be raised against this suggestion. But they
can be met satisfactorily if the matter is taken
up in earnest and with practical mind. The
principal difficulty to overcome is _time_; no
time must be wasted by research in far-fetched
details. It is a comparatively short list of
pertinent questions which would have to be
answered, and the materials of their examination
are already at hand in the declarations and
documentary publications of the different
governments themselves which want to be verified
by juxtaposition with the corresponding
publications of the other side and to be
scrutinised upon their intrinsic significance.
Works of conscientious legists and historians that
could serve as specimens are not missing. But they
are occasioned by private enterprise and express
opinions not always in the measured language that
would alone fit the purpose here in view.

This purpose is to direct the minds of the
grea